Nagao Kitamura/Yunomi
Type: Dark
Origin: Japan, Kochi Prefecture, Otoyo
Product Description: Autumn harvest. Post-fermented and made into bricks.
Temperature: Rolling boil (~212° F)
Amount: 4 grams tea in 1 liter water
Simmering Time: 7 minutes
The dry leaves have an aroma of prunes, dates, and nuts.
The golden-peach infusion has a mildly sweet aroma of baked prunes. The taste has notes of prunes, dates, and a hint of sesame with a sweet date-like finish.
I've prepared farmer Kitamura's goishicha a few times with pleasant results and the bricks can range in weight between approximately 2-4 grams. The directions recommend boiling the tea for 10 minutes and I suggest boiling to taste. At 5 minutes, the results were sweet while being a little too mild and a 7 minute boil brought out a good balance of flavor, sweetness, and a faint echo of tartness. Boiling in .5 liter of water would have bolder results. Though I haven't encountered this yet, I have heard that this tea can be sour in which case it's recommended that the tea be chilled before serving.
This tea was provided as a free sample without guarantee of a review.
Thank you for your review of this tea, this has persuaded me to pick some up. I plan to set some aside and see how it ages
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy to hear that! I've found a slight difference in taste between goishicha producers, as well. If you can find more than once source, it may be worth a comparison.
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